Dawn

We always use Atlas, they're very good:

http://www.atlasdirect.net/index.asp?wcw=google

Scamp,

Just thought I'd let you know what we plan to do in a few years time (when we've paid off our debt and can escape the UK!).

We bought our house in Newcastle about 11 years ago and the equity we're going to release when we sell it is just too good to turn down (about £90 - £100k). If we rent the house out, by the time we've paid the mortgage and then the agent we won't make anything on a monthly basis. Plus, the rental market in our area is totally saturated and properties are staying empty for months and months on end. Then there's the problem of finding reliable people to rent the property out to. So, we're selling and buying in another part of Europe that's cheaper.

We've got friends living in an area of Tuscany where you can still buy a large townhouse for about £70k (ready to move in, just needs a lick of paint, 4 bedrooms with attached barn that can be converted to more bedrooms at a leter date). Then, because it's 'Tuscany', you can ask for between £400-£500 a week in rent to the holiday market. There's plenty of agents in the area who, for a small fee, will find you a key holder who will take deposits from the holiday makers at the beginning of the holiday and who will clean up before the next lot of holiday makers arrive. The cost of cleaning is included in the rental cost.

So, we're selling the house in the UK to release plenty of equity, buying in Tuscany and with the left over money we'll be buying land on an island in Thailand and we'll have enough left over to build a basic wooden house - which is exactly what we want. We're buying land in Thailand by setting up our own limited company.

The rental money from Tuscany will give us enough money to live very comfortably in Thailand but we'll have savings to see us through for a while as we have to give the property in Tuscany time to 'take off' if you like - hopefully we'll rent to family and friends in the first few years and fill the gaps by using the agents in Tuscany. Plus, somewhere like Tuscany doesn't really have a 'season' and you can make decent rent from it all year round.

We'll also be able to 'potter' in Thailand as we'll have our work permits (through our limited company) and we've a few ideas about how we'd like to occupy our time and make a bit more money (but we won't have any of the pressure we have over here in the UK as we'll have the rental cash coming in from Tuscany and prices in Thailand are so low).

Then, if the s**t hits the fan in Thailand we'll have the property in Tuscany to fall back on - it's paid for outright and we won't have to pay a mortgage on it.

Prices here in the UK are now stable but it's so expensive to buy anything decent. Then the rent just covers the mortgage and you're not making anything on a monthly basis. We've gone through a load of plans trying to figure out how we can use the equity we're going to release to our advantage and this is the plan we're sticking to. I guess it'll work anywhere in Europe if the prices are still cheap and you can ask for a decent weekly rent.

Dawn

2,000 THB still a good price for a bar if there's a few of you and you haven't got far to walk home!

The $10 supermarket price has calmed me down - thought I might have to take out a bank loan to feed my addiction!

That's pretty ###### expensive though eh? You can get a litre bottle over here for £12-£13, sometimes cheaper if there's an offer on.

Did you get a lot of mixers with it?

Soz, forgot to ask - best place to buy and prices?

Wahey!

Ching, ching

Been reading all about the low alcohol Singha gubbins today and was thinking to myself that Chang is my beer of choice when in Thailand.

But after reading all about the crappy chemicals they put in the beer - be it formaldehyde, ethanol or whatever - I've decided that maybe I shouldn't be drinking bloody beer at all.

My drink of choice here in the UK is Smirnoff - triple distilled and as pure as you're going to get (is this true??).

Anyhoo, can you get Smirnoff or Stoli (Stolichnaya) in Thailand?

Personally I disagree with the death penalty as I feel that no-one, be it a murderer or someone seeking revenge, has the right to kill a person for whatever reason.

Peace!

Try diving off Ko Lanta - wonderful island and lots of good dive sites.

Here's a website:

http://www.lantadiver.com/english/

for Lanta Diver. I've used them to get qualified up to advanced and they're brilliant. The boats are top quality and they're very big on safety.

Enjoy!

Julie Thai Cotton and Silk - they did our wedding outfits and are top class:

http://www.julie.co.th/

Actually, I've let out the property on a 2 occasions but not for very long periods of time. This was done privately, without the help of a letting agent and the only people that knew about it were the housing benefit people in the UK (the 2 people renting from me claimed housing benefit/council tax rebate).

How would that work then? Do they do checks?

Cheers Vulture! Always glad to keep the tax man off my back

Thought I'd throw this one at you all. We're planning to sell up in the UK and use the money we make to buy a property in Italy (to rent out) and will be using the left over cash to buy land and build a house in LOS. Will we have to pay CG's on the profit made from selling the house in the UK or am I right in thinking that if you use the profit to buy another property (in Europe) that you get around this?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

Please, please, please does anyone have anymore information on the effect the tidal wave has had on Ko Lanta? In particular Long Beach? We've got Thai friends that live and work right on the beach and we can't get in touch. We're also due to leave the UK for Lanta in a months time and we're due to get married at the Lanta Long Beach Resort.

Any information, however trivial will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Please, please, please does anyone have anymore news on the effect that the tidal wave has had on Lanta? In particular Long Beach? We've got friends that live on the beach that we can't get through to and we're due to arrive within the next month to get wed.

I can't find any news only about Phuket and Krabi.

Thanks for your help in advance

Cheers Yeti, if you get more info and post it I'd appreciate it, Dawn

Does anyone have anymore info about Lanta, in particlular Long Beach?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this one but I believe that if you have a multiple entry visa independent of your work permit, it will survive any termination of your work permit. Any visa you get in conjunction with your work permit (i.e. the extended stay visa) will need to be relinquished (i.e. leave the country) within 7 days of the termination or renunciation of your work permit.

I think this is how it works with non-B multiple entry visas but I'm not sure about other types of non-imm visas.

Can Sunbelt shed any light on this one?

Cornflakes,

Congrats on deciding to move to Thailand - me and my partner are from Newcastle and we're looking to move to Lanta within the next 3-4 years to escape this bloody horrible north east weather!

Thought I'd get in touch to pass on a bit of advice that I was given from Sunbelt Asia.

I think the best way for you to do things is to set up a Thai Limited Company. You can do this from within the UK. Under current Thai law foreigners can only own up to 49% of a Thai Ltd company but legal processes have been developed which allow us to control the company and have some measure of security while remaining minority shareholders. A Ltd company, controlled by you, can conduct virtually any business. You would be the managing director, sign the cheques and make all the decisions in the company. This means you can then find a lease and go about renting property to start up your business - however small and simple that business may be. I don't know a great deal about the shareholder side of things - I'm in the process of trying to find out details about this for myself at the minute - but it might be possible for your girlfriend to be the one and only Thai shareholder (owning 51% of the Ltd company).

In order to work in Thailand, you'll need to apply for a work permit and 'work' in Thailand is defined very broadly to include almost any kind of mental or physical effort whether or not for renumeration. If you set up a Ltd company then it is relatively easy for you to get a work permit to work in that company. For the work that you want to do you will need a permit.

If you set up your Ltd company and you're the managing director and require a work permit then your company will need 2 million baht of registered capital. Only 25% of this registered capital needs to be 'paid in'. 'Paid in' capital refers to the amount of assets which are required to be on the balance sheet of the company to support the registered capital. It is meant as a protection to shareholders from buying shares in a Ltd company with no assets. Thai law required Ltd companies to pay in 25% of their registered capital within 90 days of company registration. The paid in capital can be in the form of any assets which are owned by the company - property, cars, furniture or cash etc. You have to maintain the 25% paid in capital throughout the life of the company.

Once you've set up the Ltd company (and before you apply for a work permit) you'll need a visa. If you've set up your Ltd company then you can apply for a non immigrant B (business) visa. If you want this visa to be for a full year (called an extended stay visa) then you have to employ 4 Thai workers (there's a '4 for every foreigner' rule) and you'll have to have a minimum wage/income from your business of 50,000 baht per month - which is crazy! To get around this, apply for the multiple entry version of the non imm B visa - as there's no requirement to have a minimum salary/wage or emply Thai workers. You'll have to make visa runs every 90 days but this is totally legal and I suppose it's a look out if owt else. You don't even have to stay overnight when you get over the border - you can exit and re-enter the same day. After you return from your visa run you'll need to apply to extend your work permit at the local ministry of labour office. The extension process is quite quick and easy.

Good luck!

Cheers for all this info folks

Looks like second hand (a few years old) is the way to go. I had heard that, like in the UK, if you buy second hand it works out much cheaper.

Over here (I'm still in the UK for now unfortunately ) as soon as you drive a new car off the forecourt you lose at least a couple of grand so second hand works out a bargain.

Rich - did you get any warranty on the second hand Mitsubishi you bought?

Dawn

Thanks for all this info folks.

I've sent an email to Sunbelt Asia and they've got back to me - I'll take up my very specific detailed questions with them!

We'll be sitting down and talking all this through with a lawyer and advisor in Krabi in February but I'm just trying to get my head around if it's all possible at the minute.

Thanks for the advice on the residency/multi entry visa issue.

Dawn

Hi Graham,

Thanks for your reply

Do you mind me asking what vehicle you've leased and the cost for the 2 years?

Cheers

Dawn

As a director of your own limited company do you have to have a salary of 50,000 baht per month (I'm from the UK) as well as 2 million baht of registered capital to be granted a work permit or will you get a work permit with just the registered capital (with a multi entry visa)?

I'm asking as we'll only be making a small amount of money from our limited company (not enough to pay us both a salary of 50,000 baht per month) and will be living in Thailand mainly from the money we make from renting property in Europe.

We will have the 2 million registered capital for each director (and possibly a little bit more).

Thanks in advance for your advice

Okay, I think I'm with it......almost......

We can set up a limited company in The Land of Smiles and know the rules about registered capital, working capital and paid up capital per Director for the purposes of having a good chance of being granted a work permit each.

We also know that we'll have to do this in order to get a one year visa that we can extend and that if we can't meet the capital per Director then we can apply for one year multi entry visas instead (and still have a good chance of being granted a work permit).

Am I right in thinking that in order to get a one year visa we will have to employ 8 Thai workers (as there will be two Directors and we're both expats) and that if we can't do this then we will have to get multi entry visas? Can we can employ Thai people, through our limited company, as cleaners and to do general work around the house for us and will that count towards the 4 Thai workers per foreigner rule? Is there a minimum wage requirement when hiring and paying Thai workers (in the Krabi area)?

Now onto the new minimum monthly wage for expats If we have our own limited company do we still have to make 50,000 baht each per month to qualify for a one year visa? (we're from the UK). Does this have to be from work done inside Thailand only through the limited company? Am I right in thinking that we don't have to meet this minimum monthly wage requirement if we have a multi entry visa?

I'm asking this as we'll have a montly income coming in from renting property in Europe and planned on withdrawing this cash from an ATM. Am I right in thinking this won't count towards our monthly income? Will it count towards it if we have this money paid into a Thai bank account or is this not a good thing to do - is it best to keep it off shore?

I know we stand a very good chance of getting work permits if we're both Directors of our own limited company but if we have multi entry visas, don't employ Thai workers and only have a small amount of income per month from work done through our limited company, will this mean we might not get our work permits? Do we have to have a certain amount of income per month to get our work permits even if we have the multi entry visa? Will our income from renting our property in Europe help?

Sorry for all these questions but it's taking a while to get my head around all these rules/laws Seems a lot of hard work for a one year visa - think we might be best to go with the multi entry visa, do the runs every 90 days (it's a look out if anything) and then wait 3 years and hope for residency.

Good gawd

We'll be moving to Lanta soon and were wondering what's the best option with regards to transport.

We'd ideally like a 4 wheel drive of some description and have heard it's cheaper to lease as it's still expensive to buy outright in Thailand.

Anyone have any experiences of this? Or any info on places in the Krabi area that we can contact to compare prices?

If we do lease will we get insurance included - and everything else that we will need to be on the road legally?

We'll be coming to Thailand with IDP's and will be applying for Thai driving licenses as soon as we arrive (on non imm B visas with work permits).

Many thanks in advance for your help!